There are many inventions described and illustrated herein. The inventions relate to encapsulation electromechanical structures, for example, microelectromechanical and/or nanoelectromechanical structure (collectively hereinafter “microelectromechanical structures”) and devices/systems including same; and more particularly, in one aspect, for fabricating or manufacturing microelectromechanical systems having mechanical structures that are encapsulated using wafer level encapsulation techniques, and devices/systems incorporated same.
Microelectromechanical systems, for example, gyroscopes, resonators and accelerometers, utilize micromachining techniques (i.e., lithographic and other precision fabrication techniques) to reduce mechanical components to a scale that is generally comparable to microelectronics. Microelectromechanical systems typically include a mechanical structure fabricated from or on, for example, a silicon substrate using micromachining techniques.
The mechanical structures are typically sealed in a chamber. The delicate mechanical structure may be sealed in, for example, a hermetically sealed metal or ceramic container or bonded to a semiconductor or glass-like substrate having a chamber to house, accommodate or cover the mechanical structure. In the context of the hermetically sealed metal or ceramic container, the substrate on, or in which, the mechanical structure resides may be disposed in and affixed to the metal or ceramic container. The hermetically sealed metal or ceramic container often also serves as a primary package as well.
In the context of the semiconductor or glass-like substrate packaging technique, the substrate of the mechanical structure may be bonded to another substrate (i.e., a “cover” wafer) whereby the bonded substrates form a chamber within which the mechanical structure resides. In this way, the operating environment of the mechanical structure may be controlled and the structure itself protected from, for example, inadvertent contact.